Japan drops ‘maximum pressure’ on North Korea from foreign policy playbook, wants to normalise ties with Kim regime

Government spokesman said the language was scrapped from diplomatic document because of ‘major developments in the situation surrounding North Korea’

But Japan still wants to resolve issues such as wartime abductions, nuclear and missile issues and ‘settling an unfortunate past’

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Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga holds a press conference in Tokyo. Photo: Kyodo

Published: 3:46pm, 23 Apr 2019Updated: 3:45pm, 23 Apr 2019

Japan on Tuesday dropped the push to apply “maximum pressure” on North Korea from its official foreign policy, an apparent softening of Tokyo’s position as major powers engage with Pyongyang.

In last year’s “Diplomatic Bluebook”, published when tensions on the Korean peninsula were soaring, Japan said it was coordinating efforts with its allies to “maximise pressure on North Korea by all available means.”

But this language was dropped from this year’s edition, drawn up after diplomats had “taken comprehensively into account the latest developments surrounding North Korea”, according to chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga.

“There have been major developments in the situation surrounding North Korea in light of events such as the US-North Korea summits in June last year and February,” Suga told reporters.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the 4th Plenary Meeting of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea in Pyongyang. Photo: AP

Abe, seen as a foreign policy hawk, has also softened his rhetoric towards North Korea, frequently offering to meet leader Kim Jong-un to negotiate the decades-old issue of Japanese civilians kidnapped by the North.